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Primary education

Join our Primary Education forum to discuss starting school and helping your child get the most out of it.

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Original poster

How much home input have you found you need to put in with your 6-8 year old on times tables, telling the time and other core targets?

46 replies

hmc · 30/11/2009 21:10

Dd (aged 7) is struggling with her times tables. She has passed test 'B' and is attempting to pass test 'C' (2x, 3x, 4x, 5x, 10x tables included in this level) - the pass mark is 100% correct over 30 questions timed over 5 minutes. Most of her classmates (except 2 others) have progressed to Test G and beyond (Test G= 2s, 3s, 4s, 5s, 6s, 8s, 10s, 11s).

I am now coaching her on her times tables having realised (not from the teacher - no communication there! - but from overheard conversations) that she is lagging behind.

Should I have been practicing with her earlier? Is it the case that the other children who have moved swiftly on have parents who have been assidiously practising the times tables with them, learning them by rote on the way to school in the car etc?

I struggle to know how much coaching I should be doing at home.

Also telling the time - she went to do her homework on Education City and it was positioning the hour and minute hands correctly on an analogue clock to say 10 past two or 5 to three etc. She had not one clue! I asked her if she had covered it in class and she had - but it clearly had gone completely over her head.

I must confess I haven't ever worked on helping her tell the time before. I do engage with her at home, honestly! - we read together, we practice spellings, she practices piano, we have a laugh, I ferry her here and there between brownies and swimming etc...but I wonder if I am doing enough because she continues to languish near the bottom of the class in most things (..for a long time she was struggling with reading too, but thankfully over the past 6 months has caught up in that area).

How much time have you put in to helping your primary aged child in times tables, telling the time etc?

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Original poster

hmc · 30/11/2009 21:15

Bit worrying that I am helping her with a spelling. I meant 'assiduously'..

OP posts:

TheFallenMadonna · 30/11/2009 21:15

DS (8) has always refused to learn his tables. But we have certainly been asked to help him with them. It is always () one of his targets...

Chandra · 30/11/2009 21:17

I try to make games out of it, in occasions is only 15 minutes, but we have managed 2 hrs playing with time tables (just because he was having fun). I try to give some sense to what he is doing like for example calculate how many days to Christmas, how many minutes to x program, etc. Monopoly is also great for maths if you let her run the bank.

You can also get exercise books from WHS Smith, they are mostly good fun and DS likes to go through them and do exercises while I'm cooking dinner.

TheFallenMadonna · 30/11/2009 21:18

I have always therefore assumed he was behind, but no-one is really bothered because Maths is his thing really, so it doesn't slow down his work too much. Not that it doesn't irk me

Chandra · 30/11/2009 21:18

There are some very good books on games for reading, writing and maths by Peggy Kaye

Original poster

hmc · 30/11/2009 21:23

"You can also get exercise books from WHS Smith, they are mostly good fun and DS likes to go through them and do exercises while I'm cooking dinner."

I'll look out for those... and am now about to google Peggy Kaye, thanks

OP posts:

sphil · 30/11/2009 21:24

I am in a similar position - DS1(8)struggles in any kind of test situation (except reading). Until recently we really only did tables and spellings at the weekends (ie. ready for tests on Mondays) but I've just started trying to do a bit every day. The aim is to do about 30 minutes after tea - 15 minutes touch typing practice (he's dyspraxic),5 minutes spelling, 5 minutes maths, 5 minutes recorder practice. I say 'aim' - we often don't manage it. I bought a little Mental maths book from Smiths (£2.50) which has timed tests in it - he tries to beat his previous record, which he enjoys (OK, semi-enjoys...)

There's a good tables programme you can download free - Timez Attack.

TheFallenMadonna · 30/11/2009 21:26

There are also all sorts of games. DS has some dice things. And some colouring books, making patterns with the different numbers. I honestly think learning by rote is the way to go though. I tell DS it isn't Maths really. More like learning lines in a play or learning a poem.

Original poster

hmc · 30/11/2009 21:27

Timez attack - thanks for that, sounds interesting. Yes, I am trying to do a few minutes every day now, but with the list of things that she needs help with ever expanding it is a bit of feat fitting it in sometimes!

OP posts:

TheFallenMadonna · 30/11/2009 21:29

What I am doing now btw is putting post-it notes around the place, so if he goes to get a drink, there's a post-it. One on his book bag. One on the TV remote...

7 x 5 on one side.

35 on the other.

So he can test himself. He quite likes that.

Original poster

hmc · 30/11/2009 21:30

That's a great idea TheFallenMadonna! Love it

OP posts:

TheFallenMadonna · 30/11/2009 21:33

It is my revision method of choice
I used to do it all the time when I was doing my OU course. I had a houseful of post-its.

BreadAndJam · 30/11/2009 21:39

Learning to tell the time is something I guess we just do in an everyday way -

eg "can you go and see what the time is for me?"
If they don't know, they come back and say where the hands are, we talk about what time that is...

eg "tv prog is on at 6.15, that's when big hand/small hand is...can you watch the clock and tell me when it's time..."

Madsometimes · 01/12/2009 12:24

Dd1 has always struggled with telling the time, and she is 9. However, I think that she is slowly starting to get it. Ever since she was 8, she became aware that her bedtime was 8 O'Clock but that occassionally I would put her to bed much earlier than that, and that she had no way of checking up on me! That incentive got her going. Now I can no longer say, "Right it's half past seven, get yourself ready for bed" when it is perhaps only 6:15!

Sagacious · 01/12/2009 12:31

OP how do you know all the other children have passed these tests?

You sound very stressed about it.

DS is in year 3 and I can vaguely remember a chart of times tables in his homework book.

He does his homework (mainly reading/spellings and the odd maths sheet) but I certainly don't freak out about levels

[is it just me thats err laidback about primary school?]

florenceuk · 01/12/2009 12:34

my guess is, although correct me, that this is private school? As my DS is in Yr 3 and only just made a vague acquaintance with the 6 times table, I would be surprised if they do the 8s in yr2

singersgirl · 01/12/2009 12:34

Both my boys (now 8 and 11, in Y4 and 7) seemed to find telling the time on an analogue clock difficult. I tend to think nowadays it's partly lack of motivation - we only have one analogue clock in the house and that has Roman numerals on it. But we have lots of digital displays - oven, microwave, clock radio, DVD etc. They understood what the time on a digital clock meant, but they took ages to get the hang of the hands.

For times tables, I think it is rote all the way. We were lent the Percy Jackson times tables CD and DS, then 7, loved it and learned all his remaining tables in 2 weeks (probably 4s, 6s, 7s, 8s, 9s and 12s). We used to listen to it in the car on the way to swimming, the shops etc.

blametheparents · 01/12/2009 12:42

Some great interactive Maths games here
If DS asks to go on Club Penguin then I say that he can, but he has to play a game from this site first. Sometimes he forgets to change over to Club Penguin.

Takver · 01/12/2009 12:58

DD is yr 3 and has just been given 3 x and 4 x tables to learn as her target by Christmas time.

AFAIK she's doing fine in maths, so I don't imagine what she's doing is that different to the others.

We are meant according to the letter home with the targets to 'encourage her to use her maths in everyday situations to reinforce understanding' if that helps!

Bonsoir · 01/12/2009 13:02

I think that playing with numbers is something it is a good idea to get in the habit of very early. When everyone is sitting round the table, playing at counting up hands, fingers, toes, plates, knives, forks, glasses is a starter. You can then use the same basis for subtracting, multiplication and division.

Ditto sorting laundry (socks come in handy for the 2x table) etc.

gingertoo · 01/12/2009 13:15

We had a letter from DS2's teacher (YR4) at the start of the school year setting out what she hoped we would do with our children over the coming year. She hoped that we would practice the weekly spelling list with our DCs, help them learn times tables, read with them and encourage free reading. This is in addition to two homework sheets, one numeracy, one literacy that she sends home each week.
I think that my dc's school have quite high expectations of parental involvement and sometimes it's hard to fulfil those expectations..

I love 'Brain Training' on the DS for my older DCs. They do the '100 mental maths' questions every day and from that they have learned to come up with the answers to random multiplication questions at speed. They have to do the Brain Training before I let them go on other games [evil mother emoticon]

JeffVadar · 01/12/2009 14:46

Another good site for times tables is Tutput. It particularly appeals if your DC has a bit of a competitive streak .

My (very competitive) DS was getting nowhere with his tables, in spite of my nagging. Another MNer recommended tutpup and it was so successful that DSs maths teacher was asking us what we had done it to get such an improvement!

I also insist on 10 mins tutput before other computer games are allowed (are all MN mums evil perhaps )

colditz · 01/12/2009 14:49

We talk about stuff like that on the walk to school.

I cannot see myself doing that with ds2, he's disinterested.

MintyCandyCane · 01/12/2009 14:51

I haven't taught my children times tables at all. They seem to be doing ok though.

foxinsocks · 01/12/2009 14:57

is she year 3 or 2?

I don't think they are expected to know all the times tables till the end of primary school. Certainly dd, who is totally disinterested in maths and in yr5, doesn't know all of hers (probably up to 6s) and she's in the 2nd maths group and getting perfectly average marks

you say you haven't heard from the teacher that there's a problem - I really wouldn't worry and I certainly wouldn't listen to what other parents are saying. Anyone who is boasting about how many times tables their child knows obviously doesn't have very much else to think about!

But doing every day things every now and then can do no harm (so next time you are in the sweet shop and she wants 3 sweets that cost 8p each, you know who can work out how much is to pay!)

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